All week long The Kitchn has focused on farms and farming, but we'd be remiss if we didn't mention one big farming trend to emerge in recent years: urban farming, specifically backyard chicken keeping. Chickens (and their coops) have become so popular that there are now multiple chicken coop tours around the country, like the Tour de Cluck, a 200-chicken-coops-in-16-miles biking expedition in Davis, California. These tours draw hundreds of chicken keepers and wanna-be chicken keepers, all pondering "the increasingly intense relationship among kitchen, coop and garden." You can just call 'em coop snoops!

The New York Times reports on the 'chicken coop tour' trend:

Unlike decorator show-houses, with their tasseled draperies, coop tours attract people searching for practical and ingenious solutions that will result in the ultimate prize: a summer of frittatas, soufflés and huevos rancheros pridefully made from their own fresh eggs.

Housing for chickens is actually quite specific—they require protection from weather, predators, and themselves; they need darkness and confinement—which may be part of the reason why people get so interested in other people's coops. How did they solve this problem? What new construction ideas do they have? But it's also a chance to meet with other chicken keepers, and possibly set up a swap system. Eggs for eggs, or eggs for vegetables.

Do you keep chickens? Have you ever been on a chicken coop tour?

Read More: In California City, a Chicken Coop Tour

Related: Home-Raised Eggs: Raising Chickens and Putting an Egg on Everything

(Images: Irwin Miller via Apartment Therapy)